Carter, Robert (1728-1804) [Manumission of a slave]
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02448.04 Author/Creator: Carter, Robert (1728-1804) Place Written: Westmoreland County, Virginia Type: Document signed Date: 1 August 1791-2 January 1792 Pagination: 1 p. ; 10.2 x 19.1 cm. Order a Copy
Appears to be a copy dated 2 January 1792, of a document written on 1 August 1791. Note at bottom signed by Thomas Edwards on 2 January 1792 says "An extract from the Deed recorded in the Northumberland District Court." Document says that Carter was using the 1782 Virginia emancipation act to "emancipate from slavery Sampson at Aquarius in Frederick County aged twentyone years."
In 1791, Robert Carter III, a wealthy slave owner with over a dozen plantations on 78,000 acres of land, declared that he believed slavery was contrary to the principles of the Constitution of the United States and his religious beliefs. He began a process to emancipate his 500 slaves in 1791, which was completed after his death in 1804.
[Draft Created by Crowdsourcing]
Whereas the General Assembly for the Commonwealth of Virginia did in the year seventeen hundred & eighty two enact a law entitled "An Act to authorize the manumission of slaves." Now be it remembered that [J]. Robert Carter of [Momony] Hall in the County of Westmoreland & Commonwealth aforesaid, do under the said act for myself my heirs Execturors & administrators emancipate from slavery Samson at Aquarius in Frederick County aged twenty one years. [illegible] of forty six years. In Witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand & affixed my seal this first day of August in the year of our Lord seventeen hundred & ninety one. An extract from the Deed recorded in the Northumberland District Court January 2nd 1792.
Robert Carter
Thomas Edwards [C]. N. D.
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